MS 130 A Communication by Mrs. Roger Moore

In her four page letter, which appeared to be directed to the local newspaper, the Wilmington Messenger, Mrs. Roger Moore took issue with an earlier story in the Elm City Mirror which had claimed that the leader of the "revolution of 1898 in Wilmington" was Colonel Alfred M. Waddell (1834-1912). According to Moore, the leaders were in fact her husband, Colonel Roger Moore and Doctor J. E. Matthews, and that Waddell was not informed of the movement's plans until after his election as Mayor. She credited Colonel Moore with preventing greater violence toward the African American community by refusing to give the order to shoot at a crowd of people and by preventing lynchings at the jail.